John
10-06-2007, 09:29 AM
Never poke fun at a coworker when they are stuck at work and you are off for the day.
A coworker (Bruce) and I took off yesterday and went fishing on Lake Ray Hubbard in Dallas. The weather was darn near perfect (Clear skies, 70 degrees, very light breeze) and initially all went well. We arrived at 0630 and after snagging a bag of ice from the attendant at the marina, we let the boat glide smoothly off the trailer into the water. It started easily and we were on our way across the lake just as the horizon started to turn red.
We thumbed our noses at the rush hour traffic as we passed under the bridge on I-30 and hit the throttle as we cleared the no-wake buoys. The moon and Venus were still quite bright in the sky as we headed for the southern end of the lake.
I have an Eagle Fish-finder on the dash which also has GPS and map display capability. So we were able to find the opening to the cove we were headed for at the south end of the lake quite easily even in the semi-darkness. I cut the motor and we slid soundlessly between the two points of a demolished bridge and into the cove. We got the trolling motor deployed and had just tossed our lures in the water when I remembered I promised to call work to check status. Things usually go wrong when you aren’t there and this time two of us were out.
After ribbing Joe at work for not being with us I hung up to concentrate on casting. That’s when things started to go wrong. My first cast sent my little rubber frog into a bush at waters edge and the “weedless” hook configuration snagged a branch. I used the trolling motor to get up close to the bank so I could get it loose.
The trolling motor prop dug in the mud so I shut it off while I struggled with the lure. After getting it loose I shoved us off the bank and hit the reverse on the motor. As we came free of the Hydrilla the motor made a curious whine so I pulled it up to inspect it. Rats… The prop was gone and I didn't have a spare.
Fishing from a boat without a trolling motor is decidedly a pain and the wind wasn’t working with us to help drift the boat in the right direction.
After a couple hours of this we headed over to the lakeside Bass Pro shop. In the pictures below, you can see some vertical posts. These are the supports for the floating dock. We tied up and got to the front door just as they were opening at 0900. They had the right prop (I bought two so I’d have a backup) and I managed to get to the registers without buying a bunch of other stuff I wanted/needed.
http://www.varminthunters.com/john/basspro.jpg
Here's a view form Bass Pro of the boat tied up to one of the docks.
http://www.varminthunters.com/john/basspro2.jpg
http://www.varminthunters.com/john/basspro3.jpg
We got back under way and continued our aquatic endeavors but still no luck. No good luck anyway as we never did land a fish. I snagged my “weedless” frog several more times and even wrapped it around a low hanging branch. I managed to retrieve it but didn’t get one strike all day and Bruce only managed to feed his worms to some sneaky Catfish that wouldn’t commit to a good bite. I did manage to snag somebody else’s lost lure on one of my casts and after replacing the rusty treble hooks it’ll be good as new.
After dragging the boat back across Dallas and getting it stowed in the garage Wifey and I headed to the airport and picked up my daughter and Grandson whom flew in for a few days. That kid is only 10 months old and already looks like a young boy instead of a baby. This morning Wifey is making moving noises because we are missing out on our only Grandkid growing up.
Well that’s my day off. Thanks for coming along for the ride. If you read all the way through this then thanks but you really need to get out the door yourself and have some fun.
A coworker (Bruce) and I took off yesterday and went fishing on Lake Ray Hubbard in Dallas. The weather was darn near perfect (Clear skies, 70 degrees, very light breeze) and initially all went well. We arrived at 0630 and after snagging a bag of ice from the attendant at the marina, we let the boat glide smoothly off the trailer into the water. It started easily and we were on our way across the lake just as the horizon started to turn red.
We thumbed our noses at the rush hour traffic as we passed under the bridge on I-30 and hit the throttle as we cleared the no-wake buoys. The moon and Venus were still quite bright in the sky as we headed for the southern end of the lake.
I have an Eagle Fish-finder on the dash which also has GPS and map display capability. So we were able to find the opening to the cove we were headed for at the south end of the lake quite easily even in the semi-darkness. I cut the motor and we slid soundlessly between the two points of a demolished bridge and into the cove. We got the trolling motor deployed and had just tossed our lures in the water when I remembered I promised to call work to check status. Things usually go wrong when you aren’t there and this time two of us were out.
After ribbing Joe at work for not being with us I hung up to concentrate on casting. That’s when things started to go wrong. My first cast sent my little rubber frog into a bush at waters edge and the “weedless” hook configuration snagged a branch. I used the trolling motor to get up close to the bank so I could get it loose.
The trolling motor prop dug in the mud so I shut it off while I struggled with the lure. After getting it loose I shoved us off the bank and hit the reverse on the motor. As we came free of the Hydrilla the motor made a curious whine so I pulled it up to inspect it. Rats… The prop was gone and I didn't have a spare.
Fishing from a boat without a trolling motor is decidedly a pain and the wind wasn’t working with us to help drift the boat in the right direction.
After a couple hours of this we headed over to the lakeside Bass Pro shop. In the pictures below, you can see some vertical posts. These are the supports for the floating dock. We tied up and got to the front door just as they were opening at 0900. They had the right prop (I bought two so I’d have a backup) and I managed to get to the registers without buying a bunch of other stuff I wanted/needed.
http://www.varminthunters.com/john/basspro.jpg
Here's a view form Bass Pro of the boat tied up to one of the docks.
http://www.varminthunters.com/john/basspro2.jpg
http://www.varminthunters.com/john/basspro3.jpg
We got back under way and continued our aquatic endeavors but still no luck. No good luck anyway as we never did land a fish. I snagged my “weedless” frog several more times and even wrapped it around a low hanging branch. I managed to retrieve it but didn’t get one strike all day and Bruce only managed to feed his worms to some sneaky Catfish that wouldn’t commit to a good bite. I did manage to snag somebody else’s lost lure on one of my casts and after replacing the rusty treble hooks it’ll be good as new.
After dragging the boat back across Dallas and getting it stowed in the garage Wifey and I headed to the airport and picked up my daughter and Grandson whom flew in for a few days. That kid is only 10 months old and already looks like a young boy instead of a baby. This morning Wifey is making moving noises because we are missing out on our only Grandkid growing up.
Well that’s my day off. Thanks for coming along for the ride. If you read all the way through this then thanks but you really need to get out the door yourself and have some fun.